


Common Ground

by interestingword



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: wolf 359 secret santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-23 22:33:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13199952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/interestingword/pseuds/interestingword
Summary: Hera and Jacobi are two very, very different people.(wolf 359 ss for @inconsistentlypresent on tumblr!!)





	Common Ground

Crimson tinted the sky as the sun began to overtake the treeline, and Jacobi sat with a grunt on the back porch of his new house. Nice, shiny, new, take-it-and-stay-out-of-the-politics-of-this-incident-until-we-say-you-can-come-back-to-work house.

At least it had a coffee maker. 

The warning sound of an AI coming into the house chimed softly, and he sighed, knowing that peace and quiet was too far gone by now. Every day, someone stopping by to check in. If it wasn't Isabel "Team Mom!" Lovelace, it was Minkowski. If it wasn't Minkowski, it was Eiffel. If it wasn't Eiffel, it was the AI he'd spent as much time avoiding as possible because he didn't feel like being reminded of the Hephaestus every time she spoke. 

He'd never gotten that far down the chain before, come to think of it. Weird.

"Mr. Jacobi?" 

He took a sip of black coffee, wondering if the shoddy AI set-up he'd been given included cameras, or if staying real quiet would be enough.

"Jacobi?"

Maybe with a running start, he could clear both fences before the neighbor's dogs reached the end of their leashes. But...gravity.

"Daniel!"

Yeah, probably not. Damn. "Yeah?"

"How are you today?"

"Fine." He sipped his coffee. "Is that all?"

"Well, the comm- Minkowski wanted me to make sure you weren't dead or anything, and I think that's been established, so I can leave now if you like. Unless you want me to stay! I can totally stay, if you want. And talk."

He didn't even consider. "No thanks." 

They both waited for words that wouldn't come, until the chime of the AI leaving echoed through the empty house. Of the relationships being precariously maintained after the return to Earth, theirs was the most difficult, and possibly the most unnecessary. He'd never made friends with her. He'd never made enemies of her. They existed on different planes, didn't speak unless required, and made it work just fine. 

Hell, their only reason to stay in contact at all was because of the shit they'd been through in the last six months. Aliens. Mind control. Alien mind control. Creepy-ass robot humans with mind control. Alien blood being the only solution to the creepy-ass human mind control. Fun, fun times.

Jacobi drained his coffee, stood up, and went to stare at the wall inside. 

\--

He didn't like parties. They didn't bring back a bad memory, stir up anything buried, he just...didn't like them. Too loud, too bright, too many people in too little space and he wasn't claustrophobic but _damnit_ that was an exception.

The only decent part was the alcohol, and that was banned at their get-togethers, so scratch that. No decent part. Just enemies turned friends turned acquaintances, albeit very caring acquaintances who thought he needed something from them.

Hera chimed. "Jacobi? You okay?"

"Fine," he grunted through gritted teeth. The only thing he cared about was the detonator in his hands. Focus. Connect a-12 to the left green clamp. Turn it over and repeat. Tighten counter-clockwise. 

"Are you sure? You don't sound fine."

"I'm **sure.** " Remove panel. Remove wire b-7 and discard. Replace panel and only half-tighten the screw on the right-hand side.

"...O-"

" _Stop!_ " It wasn't his usual go-away snark, but a sharp yell that startled them both, and the detonator clattered onto the table. He clutched his head in his hands. "Leave me alone. Please. I _don't_ want to talk."

Hera stopped, for good this time, and as the clock ticked on he moved to shakily fiddle with the wired box again. 

She left. Another arrived.

"You shouldn't be so hard on her."

"Fuck off."

"Yeaaah, not going to work on me, sorry. You're the one imagining me here anyway."

Funky auditory hallucination lady had a point. He groaned. "What do you want, Maxwell?"

"Me? I don't want anything. I'm just a 'funky auditory hallucination lady'. You, however, want something that you think I can help you with, and I'm not leaving until we've got it figured out." 

He groaned again, inwardly. "I'm gonna finish my detonator. Then we can talk." There was no response. 

It lay on the table, alone, unattended to, for the rest of the week.

\--

"I'm fine!"

"No, you're not!" 

Jacobi scowled, drawing in a breath with which to protest.

Too late. Hera continued, her volume escalating as all the emotions she'd kept quiet around him were allowed to show. "You've pushed everyone away, you don't have a job, you don't talk to anyone for days on end, and you haven't made the slightest effort to make something of a life that could very well have been left floating in space if it weren't for your sheer dumb luck!"

He listened begrudgingly. 

"We all lost someone up there! And I know, I know-" She was cut off.

"Did you lose _everyone?_ " Jacobi was deathly calm, staring at the AI's speaker, but the constraint he'd established between himself and her was crumbling. "Did your -" friend lover boss boyfriend "- superior officer get killed who-knows-how without ever thinking of the people in his life? Did you have to listen to -" yourself, question mark? "- your alien double die helplessly in space?" 

"Jacobi."

"No! Did you have to _listen_ , as your _best friend_ got shot in the head because nobody considered there were other solutions?" He stopped. He was hunched heavily over the table, breathing hard, 

"Yes," she yelled back, "I did! You're forgetting that, when my program went to shit? When I couldn't keep myself together? Maxwell fixed it! Maxwell was the _only_ one who understood what I was going through and did something to help, instead of complaining whenever the air conditioning was vented into the wrong room. I didn't know her as long as you. I can't even pretend that. But, still, her death hurt a lot more people than just you."

He didn't know quite how to respond to that.

"And yeah! She was manipulative, and a liar -"

"-Hey!-" 

"- and overall not that decent when it came to respecting an _awful_ lot of things, but at least she talked to me as an individual. And not some speaker in the wall. More than I can say for a lot of you people, even on your better days." 

Part of him knew she had a point. The other part was fed up with the yelling and the ranting, and unfortunately, that part took charge. Whatever Hera said after that fell on deaf ears.

He needed a nap.

\--

"Feeling any better?" Maxwell's amused voice was not what he wanted to hear while laying on the couch at three am, but at least it wasn't the first time. 

"Mm. Yeah. I'm fine."

"You keep using that word," she said, a smile creeping into her tone, "I don't think it means what you think it means."

"It _means_ ," he grunted, "that I don't need incorporeal beings sniping at me to get my act together just because I'm a little too sulky for their tastes."

"Oh! A little too sulky! Is that all? You haven't left your house for a week, Daniel."

"Maybe that's how I've always lived."

"Maybe. Doesn't make it right."

He scowled, more aimlessly than before because of how pitch-black the house was. Fine. He was fine! Everyone always acted like that was some scientific impossibility, like there was no way he could have gone to space and back without acquiring some kind of trauma, but it was the damn truth! Nobody else in the universe was more fine than him. 

"Don't kid yourself."

Sigh. "Maxwell."

"Listen. You and I both know that this whole imaginary friend deal can only last so long. So, pick yourself up from that couch, and go try to salvage the dumpster fire you made out of all your relationships." She paused. "If nothing else, do it for me."

"I will." He didn't like it, but damn it, she had a point. A lot of them. As usual. "Goodbye, Alana."

"You need to make some more friends, Daniel."

\--

"Hera? You in there?" 

The speaker made a gentle noise to indicate that yeah, she was there. Still not too keen on it. 

Neither of them really spoke, although it was at least an accepted silence, not a tense one. Neither of them knew what to say, until one did. "You can travel, right? Plug into an Iphone and get carried around?"

She was quiet for a minute. "...In technical terms, yes."

Now came the hard part, so Jacobi plunged right in. "Do you want to come with me? To put Maxwell to rest, I mean. Find a nice spot to memorialize her here on earth. I know- I _know_ you weren't too fond of her, that's a discussion for another day, I'm sorry, but. You're the only other person alive who really knew her. And, I think, you need this as much as I do." He trailed off, thinking of what to say and what not to say, certain that this was right yet unsure if it was what he wanted to do. Before he could continue, Hera interrupted. 

"I think I'd like that."

Unbelievable. He just made a friend. "When do we start?"

There was a faint, faint smile in the AI's voice. "How about now?"


End file.
